What does The Rothschild Archive London hold?

The collections of the The Rothschild Archive London are many and varied, reflecting the many facets of the Rothschild family's history and the Archive maintains an international research centre for the furtherance of study in these fields.

The The Rothschild Archive London primarily holds the business records of the London firm of N M Rothschild & Sons, together with some papers of Rothschild banking businesses in Paris and Vienna. The Archive is also responsible for a large collection of papers of the French banking business, held on deposit by the Archives Nataionales du Monde du Travail, Roubaix, France. Researchers should note that comparatively few papers of the Frankfurt, Vienna and Naples banking houses survive.

The Rothschild Archive London also holds collections of private papers of members of the English, French and Austrian Rothschild family.

Papers of the London banking house: Original business records and artefacts created, acquired or held by the London banking house, N M Rothschild (1809-1836) and its successor firms, N M Rothschild & Sons (1836-1970), N M Rothschild & Sons Limited (1970-2009), Rothschild Group (2009-2015) and Rothschild & Co (2015-present).

Papers of the Frankfurt banking house: Original business records and artefacts created, acquired or held by the Frankfurt banking house, M A Rothschild, and its successor firm, M A von Rothschild & Söhne.

Papers of the Paris banking house: Original business records and artefacts created, acquired or held by the Paris banking house, M M de Rothschild Fréres, including information about collections deposited with the Archives Nataionales du Monde du Travail, Roubaix, France.

Papers of the Vienna banking house: Original business records and artefacts created, acquired or held by the Vienna banking house, S M von Rothschild.

Papers of the Naples banking house: Original business records and artefacts created, acquired or held by the Naples banking house, C M de Rothschild & figli.

Rothschild Family papers: Original records and artefacts created, acquired or held privately by members of the Rothschild family; original records and artefacts created, acquired or held by estates of the Rothschild family, or secondary papers relating to those estates. Some secondary papers relating to instutuions established by or supported by members of the Rothschild family.

Access to the collections

Researchers should note that access to the collections are subject to the Archive's conditions of access. Business records up to the date of 1945 are generally available for public consultation. Access to Rothschild family papers is at the discretion of the Archive, and special permission from donors and depositors may additionally be required to access all, or part, of family collections. All family papers later than 1945 are currently closed to researchers. Applications to consult some parts of the collection that are available after 1945, or family collections, must be made in writing to The Director of The Rothschild Archive.

Further collections of 'Rothschild' archives

The Waddesdon Archive located at Windmill Hill, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, is not part of The Rothschild Archive London. Read more about The Waddesdon Archive »

Collections of the Rothschild Archive London in climate-controlled storage